In London, during the winter of 1952, there was a long period of unusual harsh weather. The temperatures were considerably colder than normal and barely any movement from the wind. From December 5th through 10th, residents of London endured a period of heavy smog. Some referred to the smog as “pea soup” because the smog was so dense, a person couldn’t see through it. During these five days, nobody could get away from the smog since it filled the streets, made driving impossible, and ended up seeping into houses all around.

What are the causes?

The London smog disaster of 1952 was caused because of the extreme cold weather at the time, people were using their coal-fired stoves more than usual to keep warm. This excess burning of coal and the emissions from local industries, caused the large amount of smoke and sulfur to go into the air creating the dense smog.

Environmental Impact

Between the days of December 8th and 9th, about 900 people per day died, with a cause of death relating to the smog. Even after two weeks, approximately 4,000 people died. It is expected throughout the entire winter that year that the total number of deaths from complications of the smog rose to 12,000. These are some of the health impacts that the smog created and made everyone realize that polluting the air is bad and needed to come up with a solution so they wouldn’t have another winter like 1952. New regulations were created which restricted the use of dirty fuels in industry and banning black smoke. A few years later the Clean Air Act was created in 1956 effective for the United Kingdom.